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Ribery to miss play offs

BERLIN, October 22 – Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery will miss the next four weeks — including France's World Cup play-offs against Ireland — to help recover from his persistent knee injury, it was revealed Thursday.The 26-year-old has struggled all season and Bayern coach Louis van Gaal insists the French play-maker needs an extended break to put the injury behind him.

"We have made the decision that we want to allow him time for the injury to heal properly," said the Dutchman.

Ribery is set to miss France’s two-legged play-off qualifiers against Ireland on November 14 and 18.

And he also looks set to miss Bayern’s forthcoming important Bundesliga games including trips to Stuttgart and home to Schalke as well as Leverkusen.

The knee tendon injury, which hindered Ribery’s pre-season preparations, flared up again on October 3 in the 0-0 draw with Cologne and the Frenchman has not played since.

Van Gaal admitted they missed the midfielder during Wednesday night’s 2-1 Champions League defeat in Bordeaux.

"Without Ribery we have lost our creativeness," he said.

France’s deputy national coach Alain Boghossian sounded resigned to losing Ribery for the World Cup qualifiers.

"Bayern does want him to have an operation. They are mulling it over … but for me, Frank is all but out for the play-offs," Boghossian said in Bordeaux.